Flooding forces 75,000 from west Canada homes

Kevan Yaets crawls out the back window of his pickup truck with his cat Momo as the flood waters sweep him downstream after submerging his truck in High River, Alberta, on Thursday, June 20, 2013 after the Highwood River overflowed its banks. Hundreds of people have been evacuated with volunteers and emergency crews helping to aid stranded residents. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)

(Updated at 2:48 p.m.) CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Calgary’s mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be — for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked.

And if things don’t change, officials expect that the flow on the Bow River — which, in his words, looks like “an ocean at the moment” — will remain steady for the next 12 hours.

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No deaths have been reported, but many roads and underpasses have been washed. In the downtown, water is lapping at the doors of the Saddledome, home to the National Hockey League’s Calgary Flames, and inundating homes and businesses in the shadow of skyscrapers.

Water has swamped cars and train tracks

An estimated 75,000 residents in 25 neighborhoods lying along the rivers have been ordered out of their homes in Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics. About 1,500 have gone to emergency shelters while the rest have found shelter with family or friends, Nenshi said.

Nenshi said earlier he’s never seen the rivers that high or that fast.

Police urged people to stay away from downtown and not go to work.

Officials said lions and tigers from the Calgary Zoo may need to be transferred to prisoner holding cells at the downtown courthouse.

Schools have been cancelled and residents urged to avoid downtown. Transit service through the downtown has been shut down.

Alberta Premier Alison Redford promised the province will help flood victims put their lives back together and provide financial aid to communities that need to rebuild The premier said at a briefing that she has spoken to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is heading to Calgary and has promised disaster relief. She urged people to heed evacuation orders, so authorities could do their jobs. She called the flooding that has hit most of southern Alberta an “absolutely tragic situation.

The premier warned that communities downstream of Calgary have not yet felt the full force of the floodwaters.

It had been a rainy week throughout much of Alberta, but on Thursday the Bow River Basin was battered with up to 100 millimeters (four inches) of rain. Environment Canada’s forecast calls for more rain in the area, but in much smaller amounts.

Calgary is not alone in its weather-related woes. There have been flashpoints of chaos from Banff and Canmore and Crowsnest Pass in the Rockies and south to Lethbridge.

More than a dozen towns have declared states of emergency. Entire communities, including High River and Bragg Creek, near Calgary are under mandatory evacuation orders.

Some of the worst flooding hit High River, where it’s estimated half of the people in the town have experienced flooding in their homes.

Military helicopters plucked about 30 people off rooftops in the area. Others were rescued by boat or in buckets of heavy machinery. Some even swam for their lives from stranded cars.

A spokesperson for Defense Minister Peter MacKay said 354 soldiers are being deployed to the entire flood zone.

Pictures from inside the mountain town of Canmore show a raging river ripping at the foundations of homes.

Near Black Diamond on Thursday, the Highwood River swept away two people in a mobile home. One person, a man, was found, but the second — a woman — is still missing.

EARLIER VERSION OF THIS STORY

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Calgary’s mayor warned Friday that the worst of the flooding is yet to come after a significant portion of his city’s population spent the night pulling back to higher ground. Officials have estimated that as many as 100,000 could be out of their homes.

Entire neighborhoods all along the Bow and Elbow rivers have been cleared of inhabitants as many downtown neighborhoods were ordered evacuated in Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi said early Friday morning he’s never seen the rivers that high or that fast.

Low-lying areas along the river started to flood Thursday night and there was water filling up some underpasses. There was water in the streets of the Bowness area in the city’s northwest. The city has not said to what extent any homes have been flooded.

Police urged people to stay away from downtown and not go to work. All schools — both Catholic and public — are closed, while Catholic schools in the communities of Chestermere, Airdrie and Cochrane were also to be shuttered.

The Calgary Zoo, located on St. George’s Island, closed its gates and started taking steps “to secure and move animals to safe locations.”

Contingency plans called for big cats, such as lions and tigers, to be moved into prisoner cells at the Calgary courthouse. But the city said that hadn’t happened yet.

He said it appeared that the smaller Elbow river had reached its peak. The same could not be said for the larger Bow.

The province reported that 12 communities were under states of emergency.

It had been a rainy week throughout much of Alberta, but on Thursday the Bow River Basin was battered with up to 4 inches of rain. Environment Canada’s forecast calls for more rain today in the area, but in much smaller amounts.

Calgary is not alone in its weather-related woes. There were flashpoints of chaos from Banff and Canmore and Crowsnest Pass in the Rockies and south to Lethbridge.

Torrential rains and widespread flooding throughout southern Alberta have also forced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway and isolated the mountain resort towns of Banff and Canmore. The flooding washed out roads and bridges, left at least one person missing and caused cars, couches and refrigerators to float away.

Officials in High River estimated half of the people in its town have experienced flooding in their homes. People had to be rescued from some rooftops by boat or in buckets of heavy machinery. Others swam for their lives from stranded cars.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police called in the military, which sent two helicopters and a Hercules aircraft to help rescue those stranded in areas where roads had been washed out.

Pictures from inside the mountain town of Canmore show a raging river ripping at the foundations of homes.

Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said water levels on the Bow River aren’t expected to subside until Saturday afternoon.

“Depending on the extent of flooding we experience overnight, there may be areas of the city where people are not going to be able to get into until the weekend,” he told a news conference.